Matera's Madonna della Bruna & Inganna Mariti (husband tricking) Pasta
A summer "destruction" festival and a pasta for those busy days!
From Matera’s Simposio!
The women of Matera (probably only some, at this point in history) spend June making paper mache flowers to adorn a horse.
The most beautifully adorned animal and the best-dressed knight are their ambitions for the Cavalcata (horse ride).
Gloves, a long-sleeved white shirt, white trousers with a red stripe, and a red mantel (poor things, we're talking of the scorching hot Matera summer), this is the ensemble of each Vicinato's Cavaliere, General. Horse riding men with the duty of guarding the Carro, the cart of the Madonna Della Bruna, from destruction.
On July the 2nd of each year, a paper mache decorated cart, triumphantly celebrating a religious theme chosen by the bishop, will be shredded in a matter of minutes.
The Vastasi (a dialect term that defines wild, bestial, unapologetically destructive people) will wait until the moment the statue of the Madonna is unloaded and then fiercely throw themselves in the blinded, violent, adrenaline-fueled destruction.
Pushing, beating, and even biting is allowed.
Eventual scars will be proudly exposed as proof of devotion (most seemingly strength and masculinity).
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